Salmon patties cooked in muffin tin

Dinner Mashed taters and salmon patties. But being swamped with other tasks than cooking, the patties went into a stone muffin pan and a regular muffin tin. Baked at 350 for about an hour. The mozzarella and asiago cheeses in the mix made for a wonderfully crunchy crust and an excellent flavor. Feeling pleased about it!

4 cans salmon, drained except 1 can which you use the broth also

8 eggs

8 oz mozzarella

4 oz asiago

3 cups grain free (homemade) bread crumbs

dash oil

dash melted butter

onion powder

garlic powder

salt

1 cup homemade mashed taters

Use ninja to shred/crumb the bread. and then do the same for the cheeses.

Mix all ingredients together. Let sit an hour to blend

Oil the heck out of the stone and the muffin tin. Roll a ball of the mix and drop into the tin/stone. Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour.

Done when golden and crispy on top and the bottoms are the same.

Homemade Grain-free "Macaroni" and Cheese - recipe

Cheese Sauce:

Shred:
8 ounces cheddar
6 ounces mozzarella
4 ounces feta
4 ounces parmesan
3 ounces asiago
3 ounces romano
4 ounces Jack


Mix until smooth
1/3 cup starch mixture (mixture is made of equal amounts sweet potato starch, potato starch, and tapioca starches)
1/3 cup chickpea flour (besan flour)
1 teaspoon dried mustard (powder)
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons onion powder
and 1 1/2 cups water


Mix starch/flour mixture into 6 cups cold milk.  Put in HEAVY bottom pan and turn stove to medium low.  Slowly heat, stirring constantly.  Once see steam rising, start dropping in small handfuls of shredded cheese every couple minutes until all cheese added.  DO NOT LET BOIL.  Simmer at most until slightly thickened and cheese is melted into sauce.

If gritty or clumpy, blend with hand blender.


In large pot, bring salted water to boil.  Boil 2 sleeves Sweet Potato Noodles (these are the ones I use:  Rhee Bros Sweet Potato Noodles) for 10-12 minutes.  Drain.  Rinse with cold water.

Dump noodles into glass casserole dish.  Cover with cheese sauce and stir sauce through noodles until all is covered.  Need to be sure have some extra sauce over the noodles as the noodles suck up the liquid.  I save rest of sauce in fridge until next time I need cheese sauce (broccoli, baked taters, mashed taters etc.)

Bake in over at 350 for 1 hour or more until browned on top and bubbly.

BBQ and Meatballs = Recipes

BBQ sauce - Use safe for you ingredients if you have allergies

tomato paste = 2 cups.
water = 4 cups
chili powder = 1 tablespoon
garlic powder = 1 tablespoon
onion powder = 2 tablespoons
honey = 2/3 cup
lemon juice = 2 tablespoons
vinegar = 1/4 cup
paprika = 1 tablespoon
oregano = 2 teaspoons
oil = 1/2 cup
salt = 1/2 tablespoon

All mixed well and dumped into a Crock pot for 24-48 hours on low.  If too thin, turn onto high for about 3 hours.

Meatballs:
2 pounds ground beef
2 jumbo eggs
6 ounces shredded cheddar cheese
6 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
4 ounces shredded feta cheese
3 ounces shredded parmesan/romano/asiago cheeses
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder

Mix all together.  Form into meatballs.  Layer into glass baking dish.  Cover with BBQ sauce.  Cover and seal with foil.  Bake at 400 for 45 minutes, until meatballs cooked all the way through.

Casserole - beans, taters, chicken, cheese - super easy

Delicious one dish meal -
4 cups baked potatoes (peeled, chunked),
1 cup shredded cooked chicken,
4 ounces mozzarella cheese - cut into small bits
4 ounces mild cheddar cheese - cut into small bits,
1 can (1 1/2 cups) beans (drained of any broth) - any type will do, but I used black beans/kidney beans/pinto beans mixed.

Mix all a glass casserole dish (cake pan sized).  Cover with foil.  Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Chicken Frittata

Chicken Frittata

In a glass cake pan, Layer the following

2 cups shredded, cooked chicken mixed with 1 cup sour cream

4 ounces crumbled Feta cheese

8 jumbo or large eggs whisked until smooth

4 ounces mozzarella


Bake uncovered at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour until browned on top.

Serve with green veggies (steamed Kale, lima beans, peas, broccoli, etc.) or salad.  Have cherries for dessert.

Roasted taters and cheese. Beeswax lip & Hand balm - 2 recipes

Roasted Taters and Cheese
Last night, I was hungry, but really did not want to do much cooking and DEFINITELY did not want to do many dishes.  So, I thought about some sort of twist on a baked potato.  This is what I ended up with:

2 large (baking) potatoes - scrubbed clean.
8 ounces mozzarella (or any other) cheese
1 tablespoon butter

I sliced the scrubbed baking potatoes into rounds that were 1/4 inch thick.  It is important to get all rounds about the same thickness.

I put down a layer of potato rounds in the bottom of a glass casserole dish.  I then laid out a second layer on top of the first, offsetting the potatoes so the second layer lay over the edges of the potatoes below it.

I dotted the entire top layer with very thin slices of butter.

I put this into a cold oven and turned it onto 400 degrees fahrenheit, let it bake for 20 minutes.

At 20 minutes, I took the potatoes out of the oven and topped with thinly sliced mozzarella cheese (could use shredded cheese, but why bother with the work of shredding it when slices work just as well??).  I put the potatoes back into the oven for another 15-20 minutes.  When the cheese was toasty browned on top and crispy, I took them out of the oven.

It was a lovely meal to eat with salmon and green peas.  And, the amount of dishes - 1 casserole dish and 1 knife (I sliced the cheese in the casserole dish before layering on potatoes so I did not have to dirty a cutting board).

AWESOME!




BEESWAX LIP/HAND BALM

2 ounces of beeswax
1/2 cup castor oil
1/4 cup apricot kernel oil.

Put all ingredients in a double boiler (or if you don't have one as I do not, make one by sticking a smaller pot suspended in a bigger pot and fill the bigger pot so water covers the bottom 1/3 of the smaller pot's depth).

Heat OVER LOW HEAT (takes about 30-45 minutes) to melt the beeswax.  Stir frequently.  Time to completely melt beeswax is reduced if you chop the beeswax into thin chunks/slices prior to heating.

Once completely melted, turn out into glass dish with sides or into containers.  Once cool, use sharp, oiled knife to cut into small squares.  Wrap in waxed paper and then in foil.  Tie a little bow on it.  Give as gifts for hands/lips over winter.

Potato Fritatta - Recipe

Cooking fun for the day - Made a fritatta, but used potatoes instead of my typical squash.  Turned out pretty good.

2 large potatoes sliced thinly and evenly (If you slice them different thicknesses some will cook and others will still be crunchy)
4 eggs
2 cups milk
4 ounces colby jack cheese
2 ounces feta cheese

Slice potatoes very thin and set aside.  Mix eggs and milk and whisk well.  Set aside.  Crumble feta cheese into small crumbs.  Set aside.  Shred cheese.  Split into two bowls, 1 with about 1/2 cup of shredded cheese, the other with the rest.  Reserve the 1/2 cup of cheese to sprinkle on top of everything.

Once all ingredients are ready, oil a glass 9x12 baking dish (think cake pan size).  Layer potatoes, sprinkle of colby jack, potatoes, sprinkle of feta and repeat until out of ingredients.  When everything layered, slowly pour egg/milk mixture over the fritatta.  Sprinkle reserved cheese over the top.  Place uncovered in oven.  Turn on oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Bake at 350 for 1 hour.  Turn oven down to 300 and bake another 30 minutes.

NOTE - I do not preheat the oven when using glass baking dishes, so this recipe is assuming you put the fritatta into a cold oven.

Dump and Bake - squash frittata and salmon frittata

cooking for the day is done.

Used ninja to blend cheese (10 oz), eggs (5), garden scallions (1/4 cup), garlic (4 cloves), onion (1/4 cup), milk (1 cup) and salmon (1 pound).  Poured into very large casserole dish (cake pan size or bigger).

Used ninja to blend  blend cheese (10 oz), eggs (5), garden scallions (1/4 cup), garlic (4 cloves), onion (1/4 cup),  milk (1 cup) and 5 large yellow squash.  Poured into very large casserole dish (cake pan size or bigger).

10 minutes prep time.  5 minutes rinsing and putting dishes in dishwasher.

Cheeses - asiago, feta, cheddar, parmesan, farmer - but you can use whatever you like.

Now the oven is baking 2 very large casseroles/fritattas at 350 for about an hour

...and lunch is baked for the week.  YAY.

Philly Cheese Steak - sort of...

Tonight's dinner.  Burger cooked like Philly Cheese Steaks... For me, on grain-free bread.  For Brian - on tortillas.  YUMMM!

2 pounds Burger
1 bell pepper - Diced
1 purple onion - Sliced Thin
1 carton mushrooms - sliced, washed, dried
3 Garlic Cloves - Minced
OIL for cooking

In LARGE skillet, saute onion and mushrooms and bell pepper and garlic until soft and translucent (the onions).  Add the 2 pounds burger and cook (break meat apart as it is cooking) until no pink is left, stirring very often.

Shredded cheese - Colby, American, Cheddar, Etc.

Mayo sauce:
  2 eggs
  1 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
  garlic powder
  Onion powder
  Mustard powder
  1/2 teaspoon salt
  3/4 cup oil

  Dump all mayo sauce ingredients into a hand blender cup.  Use hand blender to process until creamy.  Should still be pourable.

Bread of some type (or a bed of lettuce)

TO ASSEMBLE:

Bottom layer - bread or lettuce bed
Meat mixture
Mayo Sauce
Shredded Cheese

Each person makes his or her own on the plate - so portions can vary by choice and preference.

Cheesy Chicken Bake Recipe (Low Carb)

Cheesy Chicken Bake

3 large boneless skinless chicken breasts

¼ cup queso cheese (Mexican cheese – NOT the stuff in a jar for nacho chips)

¼ cup Farmer’s cheese (or ricotta)

¼ cup asiago cheese

¼ cup parmesan cheese

¼ teaspoon onion powder

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

Lay chicken breasts out in a glass dish.  Sprinkle with onion and garlic powder. Layer on cheeses in order listed in ingredients.  Cover dish with foil.  Place dish in oven.  Turn oven onto 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Bake (covered) for 1 hour.  Remove foil.  Return to oven.  Bake 30 minutes until browned on top.  Serve with spaghetti sauce and fresh vegetables or salad.

Customizations:

Can change spices to Mexican spices, Italian spices, or other.

Can cut the chicken into chunks and add vegetables before layering on cheeses.

Can add ham slices to the chicken before adding cheese.

Can use different cheeses.

Can layer tomato sauce or pizza sauce on the chicken under the cheeses.

Makes 8 Servings.

what to do with leftover baked potatoes: Cheesy taters like home fries

Had 3 large baked potatoes left over from dinner the other night.  Skinned them, cut them into chunks and layered them out on a glass baking dish.  Sprinkled them with garlic powder, onion powder and a bare small amount of salt.  Cut mild cheddar slices and layered those on over the taters.  The cheese was cut pretty thin, but not see-through thin.

Put the pan into the oven.  Turned it onto 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Left it to bake.  In about 30 minutes checked it.  Took another 10 to be golden and crispy.

Ate them with ketchup.  Turns out the texture of the potato is about the same as a perfectly cooked home fry.  The cheese on top is crispy and delish.  In between the home fry crumbly tater and the crispy crust is a layer of melted cheese.

Oh my, lunch was delicious!!